(which should have a smiley attached, but this is actually not funny at all)

With this subset of legislation on for over a year, I am surprised to see this coming to a wider attention/police&photographer bust-up only now. It's outrageous and unfortunately adds another point to an imaginary list why to leave the UK.

The police talked to me whilst I was doing a stock footage shoot in Piccadilly a few years back. They asked if I had a permit, I showed them a print out from the film London home page that said photographers with just one camera and a tri-pod didn't need permits. They read that and went away.

For the rest of the week I set up the 35mm gear in front of all of London's most famous landmarks, the police walked past me on several occasions and never said a word.

Why didn't this BBC guy just show his press credentials?

Some one could make a funny YouTUBE video out of this....a huge Hollywood style film shoot is going on with A-List actors, crew of hundreds, etc. The police show up and shut it down because they think it's a terrorist plot.

In the USA, it's the Republican John Ashcroft crowd who pushed this "war without end" against "terrorism" for no other reason than to create profits for their buddies in KBR and Halliburton.

It's basically a global game of whack-a-mole. There is no "winning" against the occasional criminal who pops out with a gun or bomb. They're waging a "war" against those who fight against their Milton Friedman tactics which enrich a scant few and drive the majority of the world's population into poverty.

The only way to "Fight" against "terrorism" is through education, which, happens to cost far less than even one missile. But then, if we started doing that, some influential people wouldn't be making as much money as they do now.

So, while these criminals play their game of whack-a-mole, regular people out there (like us) will have to put up with the nonsense where we're all considered guilty until proven innocent.

Good question, but that isn't a cure-all either. I don't have press credentials because I don't work for the press. But I still have need to shoot in public places for a variety of uses that have nothing at all to do with "news."

I can't count the number of times I've been asked for "credentials" as it a little card with my picture on it somehow proves that I'm "okay" and not a terrorist casing out a location. It's a ridiculous concept and entirely false security. "They" feel better because they've covered their own asses by asking the questions (either on location or at the airport when I show up with equipment) and they all make money by having a job that involves harassing the innocent public. Meanwhile, the real "terrorists" are laughing because they see how much they've thrown a wrench into societies worldwide. They did their damage already. Now "we're" finishing their job by bankrupting our economies and destroying our freedoms in this nonsensical game of whack-a-mole.

Silliness. It might be funny if people like you and me weren't the ones caught in the middle of this giant game they're playing.

I think I'm gonna go print me up a Press Credential this afternoon. Evidently, it's a free pass to wherever I want to go.....

I think I'm gonna go print me up a Press Credential this afternoon. Evidently, it's a free pass to wherever I want to go.....

Make sure you use a Canadian TV network, do you think they'll check that or question that you work for The Poutine Network Of Montreal.

The most fun I had shooting run and gun with no permits was in Miami, FL. I asked the cab driver where I could get a good shot of the cruise ships so he took me to a spot he knew. It was across the water from them so I had water in the foreground, very nice.

I did notice the security in black high speed boats going up and down the length of the ships.

I set up my gear and started to roll, after about two minutes I was spotted by the patrol boats and they gunned their engines toward me.

Two of them where speeding toward me and the cab driver was freaking out. Let's Go! Let's Go! he was shouting. I kept shooting then calmly packed up my gear and got into the cab. The cab driver sped off in a panic, geez that was fun.

Next I was shooting at a park and a lady that spoke no English at all, came by wearing a uniform and driving a golf cart. She was yelling at me and waggling her finger. I had to get a valet from the local restaurant to translate for me. She informed me that I needed a permit to film, I pointed out to her the guy with the video camera, did he also need a permit? Apparently he didn't because he was just a tourist where as I was some thing different.

So I waited for her to go to the other side of the park and then kept filming.

I laugh at all the signs all over Central Park in NYC that prohibit taking pictures for commercial purposes. Are they freaking serious? Good luck enforcing that one NYC!

Some NYC parks cops did run me out of a park once where I wanted to set up and shoot the harbour. So I left and went 10 ft from the entrance to the park. That way they could see me in full view but they couldn't touch me. I could see the ticked off looks on their faces.

I have a hundred of the these stories, I have been hasseled all over the globe, guess what.....the local authorities have never once stopped me from getting a shot

There is no doubt that terrorism is real. They've blown up buses in London, trains in Madrid, and rid New York of its two ugliest buildings. Governments don't have a solution that works, so they do things that don't work, like confronting hapless harmless photographers. Richard's story shows that if you want to get the security boats out of your way for a cruise ship attack, all you have to do is set up a camera on the other side of the harbor.

I was stopped and nearly arrested for questioning for photographing a public works compound in Hershey, PA. I was on public property, outside the fences, under a darkcloth attached to a 150 year old 6-1/2"x8-1/2" full plate camera. If I looked like a terrorist, I want to commend terrorists on their taste in classic photographic equipment!

My favorite is not being allowed on an airplane with half a small bottle of Evian but in front of me were 3 Sikhs about to board wearing those long ceremonial knives they wear. When I asked the flight attendant about it she said, "That's different, it's part of their religion". Now that's what I call a satisfactory logical response!
The idea of not being allowed to film in any mundane place because of fear of "espionage" is silly when the same or equivalent images are already freely available on the internet.

They have to make instant decisions on whether or not something might be a bomb. They tend to err on the side of caution, so it's best not to walk around wearing that battery belt if you don't absolutely have to.

John , you cant have been in London for a while !! The police and community support officers {they are cheap cops with no powers ] dont know the law !! this country is finished !!

It's true that I found out myself that I was better informed about what can legally be done or not than those officers who stopped me and intended to tell me off/reprimand me/demand to see permissions.

It's difficult to have trust in the police if you know - at least in that situation - their job better than they do. Respect for their role in the state is something different, of course.

As regards "the state" and its future, this situation of ignorant enforcers isn't cool. But John S, take John H's statement lightheartedly: there is a bit of a doomsday mood in Britain generally. The situation in Germany is far worse and increasingly repressive.

You're right. Now that I think of it, not since 1962. The police here in LA are actually often quite well educated. They have BA's and MA's in uniform. Even so, I'd still be careful about things like battery belts.

How hard can it be to run up behind a clown and knock him off his bicycle?

Seriously, though, cops need to be able to use logic and apply common sense within the context of the situation. If they can't handle that, they should not be entrusted with firearms and given permission to take physical control of other humans.

I dont expect them to know every know detail of the law !! and they arnt required to ! But this one they should know about !! as they go about the streets treating anyone with a camera as maybe terrorist !! its a joke !!! If i was robbed or mugged they may or not turn up a few days later !! Its just lazy !! and easy for them !!